Easy Ways to Decorate Your Toilet Seat or Lid

Are you bored with the plain, old, white toilet seat and lid in your bathroom? Is your bathroom stuck in the seventies, but you don't have the money to upgrade it? Do you like to decorate your bathroom for each holiday and season? If so, you may be looking for ways to spruce up your toilet lid and seat without having to splurge on a new toilet. These days there are many ways to decorate your toilet lid and seat, options that go well beyond the terry cloth covers of yesteryear.

Painting Your Toilet Lid or Seat

One way to decorate your toilet lid or seat is to paint it. A wooden toilet seat is the easiest to paint. All you need is a paintbrush or a small roller and a can of interior latex paint. You may use acrylic craft paints to add a freehand or stencil design to the toilet lid or seat and a clear acrylic topcoat to seal the design. An acrylic topcoat also makes the painted design more durable and easier to wipe clean.

Painting a porcelain or polyresin toilet lid and seat is a little more complicated due to the glossy surface. As a general rule, you should first sand the toilet lid and seat to remove some or most of the gloss. Then, after cleaning the dust from the toilet seat and lid, you should apply a bonding primer like Sherwin William's PrepRite Bonding Primer to ensure the paint's adherence. Once the primer has dried, you can apply your paint. Just remember that the higher the paint's gloss, the easier the painted surface will be to clean. Homax's Tough as Tile Tub and Tile Epoxy Paint, Rust-Oleum's Tub and Tile Refinishing Kit, and Thompson's Tile Paint may be used on porcelain surfaces without a primer.

For plastic or vinyl toilet lids and seats, use paint specifically made for plastic or vinyl surfaces. Your best bet is to take the toilet lid and seat outside and use a spray paint like Rust-Oleum's Universal Spray Paint, Rust-Oleum's Vinyl Spray Paint, or Krylon Fusion Spray Paint for Plastic to paint them.

Adding Rub-On and Stick-On Designs

For the painting-impaired, rub-on or stick-on designs are an option for decorating your toilet seat or lid. The Dollar Tree carries a line of removable, cleanable stick-ons called Main Street Wall Creations. They come in a variety of designs and themes, including sports, animals, and well-known cartoon characters, and only cost $1 per pack. Main Street Designs also has a line of alphabet stick-ons. These are helpful if you want to convey a message more than you want to decorate your toilet lid and seat. For instance, you can use the letters to spell out "lower the lid," "wash your hands," or "turn out the lights" on your toilet seat or lid.

Adding a Pre-Made Toilet Lid Cover

To spruce up your toilet lid and seat, you can also try adding one of the many pre-made toilet lid covers available on the market today. You can choose from a rainbow of colors in the old, terry-cloth standby, or you can go with a theme or character-inspired toilet lid cover. If you don't know where to start or you can't find what you're looking for at your local Wal-Mart or Target, try searching for novel toilet lid covers online. TerrysVillage.com is one site that offers a variety of unique toilet lid covers. Some toilet lid covers, like the snowman, jack-o-lantern, and Uncle Sam covers, come with a matching bathroom rug. Other toilet lid covers, like the Mardi Gras and Thanksgiving turkey toilet lid covers, are sold with coordinating covers for your toilet tank. SeatSocks.com, meanwhile, offers toilet lid covers made from a stretchable fabric called Seat Socks. The Seat Socks slide like a sock over your toilet lid and come in a variety of patterns, including sports team logos, camouflage, and beach-theme patterns. ToiletTattoos.com sells what is essentially a temporary tattoo for your toilet lid. The Toilet Tattoos are made from a vinyl film that peels on and off the entire toilet lid. They are reusable, cleanable, and available in numerous designs.

Sewing or Knitting Your Own Toilet Lid Cover

If you can work a sewing machine or a couple of knitting needles, you can easily make your own toilet lid cover. Many different toilet lid cover patterns are available on the Internet to aid you in this task. Some are free to use, while others must be purchased. Knitpicks.com, for instance, has a free, goldfish-embellished pattern that you can download and use to knit a toilet lid cover. While Craftbits.com doesn't offer a downloadable pattern, it does give you detailed directions on how many rows and how many stitches per row that you must make to recreate its two toilet lid cover designs. Emblilibrary.com provides directions on how to make a pattern by using your toilet lid as a template and how to use that pattern to make a toilet lid cover from a standard bath towel. Additional patterns can be purchased on sites like Ebay.com, CarolsRugs.com, e-PatternsCentral.com, and AnniesAttic.com.

Adding a Gag Gift or Novelty Item to Your Toilet Lid or Seat

Prankroom.com, FourEyesJokeShop.com, and PrankHero.com offer several toilet-theme gags for purchase that you can use to add a humorous touch to your toilet lid and seat. These gag gifts include a toilet monster, a water squirter, a nightlight, and a device that makes a banging noise every time someone touches or sits on the toilet seat. Toilet Tunes, meanwhile, is a radio that attaches to the inside of the toilet lid. It automatically begins to play when you lift the toilet lid and stops playing when you shut it. You can purchase Toilet Tunes from TaylorGifts.com, Amazon.com, ShopGetOrganized.com, and Ebay.com.

Sources Cited

Decorating Ceramic Tiles, http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=HomeDecor/PaintingCeramicTiles.html
Homax, http://www.homaxproducts.com
Krylon, http://www,krylon.com
Rust-Oleum, http://www.rustoleum.com
Sherwin-Williams, http://sherwin-williams.com